What we didn’t know before coming, what that Easter was, this year, right at the same time than an other local festival: Songkran, better known as the “water festival”. This celebration is the Buddhist new year and it is one of the (or even the) most important festival in Thailand. What’s nice about it is that one of the way the Thais are celebrating it consists of happily throwing water at each others in the street. We heard about it a bit before but experiencing it, in Bangkok is something special!

This festival, like many things in Thailand, is a big tourist attraction but it remains a very popular one among locals who are celebrating it their way: crazy and casual as so many other things in Thailand. So there are some entire stretches of avenues which are cut to traffic so that everybody can meet up there and participate in a huge and friendly water battle, but also, in every street, in front of their house, Thai people are taking a big bucket of water, a sound-system and throw water (while dancing) to whoever will pass by: pedestrians, scooters, or even tuk-tuk. We were in the city for 4 days and we attended (and sometimes participated) to this informal show every night.

Carrying a baby at this time is also a good way to espace from the shower as Thais stay calm with kids, but it also limits the amount of fun…

Apart from that, we were also glad to meet up again with Bangkok, wandering through its lively streets, small alleys, canals, malls, markets or temples. Even if this time, because of Songkran, many shops, museums remained closed for 4 days which gave an unusual calm atmosphere to the capital.

Even if it was our third time in Bangkok, we continued to discover new parts of the city, be it a new neighborhood, a temple (great views over the city from Golden Mount temple) or a restaurant (or a street-food stall which is more Bangkok style). This city continues to marvel us with its radical mix of modernity and tradition that suits it so well. We also specially appreciated the new highest tower of the Bangkok’s skyline which just came up this year: the MahaNakhon, a kind of deconstructed tower or sort of giant Tetris.

And for more pictures, here is the link for the Flickr album.

As we’re sligthly serious entrepreneurs, we decided to leave just for a big week so that our business doesn’t run too long without us. According to our friends who already went to Vietnam, the North seemed to be more authentic than the South so we focused on this part, landing in Hanoi with the plan to go in the mountains in the North and towards the famous Halong bay.

After a stop-over in Bangkok, marked by our horrible discovery of the Paris attacks happening right at the same time, we finally landed in Hanoi asleep and confused. Finally, the first taxi tried to cheat us with a price in dollars which had the effect to completely awake us. It also triggered our backpacker’s mood to put us in the right condition to start soaking up the Hanoi atmopshere. Quite early in the morning, Hanoi is a bustling city, with waves of two-wheelers released in its tiny streets and all its pavements invaded by street restaurants and their patrons, seated on mini-plastic stools eating up their breakfast made of noodles and soups. Compared to the distorted roads and the agressive traffic we’re used to in Bangalore, Hanoi appeared to us instantly like a small and nice city with just the right amount of restlessness to make it not boring.

Our first feeling was confirmed as we visited this human-scale capital, most of the time walking in its narrow streets where life seems to unfold in the public eye, on its pavements overloaded with scooters, small shops, kitchens, markets and restaurants of toys-like size which seem spontaneous but are finally happening everyday at the same place. And of course, all the street-food is scrumptious! Pho, Bun-bo, nems, and all the Vietnamese classics are there and tasting better than you ever had them. We also tried some new ones we never heard about before like the Cha Ca (cat-fish being cooked on your table) or this one street where we found out that only tripes were being served! So if you love street-food and are a bit adventurous, Hanoi is a paradise. French heritage can also be felt in the food but remixed with local flavours like the delicious Banh-mi (baguette sandwiches with Vietnamese ingredients) or the “Ca-Phe” (coffee) mixed with concentrated milk directly brewed in your cup.

Also, we find in Hanoi a kind of old Chinese heritage (or at least the nostalgic version we can think of) with for example many ladies wearing the typical chinese hat, many small Tao-Buddist temples (sometimes tucked at the end of a corridor!) and also in its markets full of life.

To be continued: Sa Pa, the mountains in the North…